Daily Times

Your tracks ‘Mere Khuda’ and ‘Rehna Yun’ are supposed to release this year. Tell us about these songs. Did you pen them yourself? What are they about and how well do you think the audience will receive?

Let us start from “Mere Khuda” since that was the first original I announced. “Mere Khuda” is a sweet melody with a sweet melody sending a message of god that he’s the only one who we can seek help from and he’s the only one who can turn our life into something amazing. As mentioned before, it’s a really sweet and a catchy melody more of a modern qawwali and I feel a lot of people would be able to relate to it. When I was writing it, I wanted it to give a good vibe, a fresh feeling to whoever hears it. Now onto “Rehna Yun.” This is again a sweet romantic song. It’s all based on a story of two people falling in love then somehow life gets them apart but in the end they still manage to come back together. I recently announced its teaser and the feedback I got was really something I was not expecting ‘positively’. This is all set to release hopefully next month.

You have a significant following on social media. How effective and efficient has it been to interact and connect with your listeners and fans through social media. Does it get annoying also? Do you take a break from Instagram from time to time or do you have a strategy to counter trolling?

I think social media is the best tool available right now to interact with people specially fans / my listeners. Since people barely watch music channels anymore it all happens on social media. I don’t even use social media much; I just keep scrolling across to see what’s happening but don’t really post much. Trolling is a really big issue in our country and over the past few years it has dramatically increased. More like people have lost the basic rule of humanity. I believe if you don’t like something you could just ignore it and move forward or you could probably give out a constructive criticism but this meme culture has got us to a point where there is no limit to anything. People feel entitled to everything, yet if you respond to them they get all offended. Generally, freedom of speech is really misused. The best way I use is just to ignore it all. I mean people will like it and sometimes dislike your content too there’s really nothing you can do about it but you have got to be a really strong person deep inside for you to ignore any sort of trolling because I’ve seen a lot of artists falling for it.

You have worked as part of the management team of Ali Zafar, Asim Azhar and Billy X. At what point did you realise you were meant for the mic and the stage?

When I initially got into showbiz, I was I think 12 at that point with no clue of how far would I go or if this would even work out but I always wanted to pursue it and it’s been one heck of a ride. After spending years working with artists I had all the experience in the world to take the mic but again every such thing in my life happens very unexpectedly and I would be singing if you would’ve asked me this question five years ago, I would just laugh it off. I used to sing sometimes and post it on snapchat for close people and used to get pretty positive reviews so this is just me trying out my luck. It’s been so good so far all the previous experience helps

Your official Facebook page says you have been a model also. Tell us about that experience?

Before becoming a musician, I used to be a model. I enjoyed that experience overall but constant shoots was really not my thing and over the time I got away with it and focused on being a celebrity manager and be a model on my free time. It’s really important to build yourself too!

Why did you put a stage name? Why not just Aleem Qureshi?

So this is something you do when you’ve no idea what you’ve to do. Does this sound like a tongue twister? Anyways so if you go back probably 12/13 years ago a friend of mine had my Facebook account and he used to mess up with my names and he did with this one too. I never really cared about it much since as mentioned before I never really thought things would go so far so once I started getting all the attention and fame it was too late for me to go back and change everything. Besides i saw a lot of artists using different sort of stage names so in the end it didn’t really bother me it is how it is. But interviews like these help people know that my name is Aleem Qureshi.

Tell us about your collaboration with Daniel Wellington.

So this was a big one. I once got an email from DW team and you won’t believe I ignored it thinking it might be fake or something took me over two weeks of thinking and I was like let’s reply and see how it goes. The team at Daniel Wellington was extremely nice and we got things working really quickly. They sent me a couple of watches and I had the shoot done boom we were all over the internet & now Daniel Wellington is even associated with people like Hailey Beiber. So a proud brand ambassador here.

Being on the management team of so many celebrities, what were some of the things you swore would never to your own management team when you’ll have one?

Early in this game I usually used to think why is everyone working so differently but with time I realised if it works for them let it be how it is. You’ve so much at stake when you’re a celebrity even if you breath differently people will catch up and post different stories about it. I haven’t really thought about it but I believe this isn’t an easy work for anyone. You need to be available 24 hours and I’ll expect the same from my team too.

We heard that last year, you were going to lend vocals to a Bollywood film’s track. What became of that?

Yes, the track which I recently announced ‘Rehna Yun’ is for Bollywood. We still have some ongoing paper work but due to the political situation between the two countries it gets really hard to work around such things. Let’s see how it goes

What are you currently working on?

Just my original tracks I’ve already announced two and I’ve one more original which is also ready to release once I release the tracks already announced. From “Mere Khuda” to “Rehna Yun” to “Raaste.” Did I just giveaway my third tracks name?

With your sheer brilliance and hard work, you are one of the most influential people in the country. Who influenced you to pursue singing?

It’s always an honour to be recognised this way. These are the sort of achievements you look forward to. I feel I was my own influence to pursue singing because when you listen to someone your mind does click that ‘hey! I should sing too!’ but since everyone’s voice quality is so different that you end up being disappointed at the studio. There’s a day and night difference between singing in your room and singing in front of a mic. So when I first went to record my track I could hear what I wanted from myself and then the fans most importantly with so much love they helped in it. Without fans you’re a no one, they make you a star

Your cover tracks have been receiving love from all across the globe especially “Yeh Watan Tumhara Hai,” “Tujhe kitna chahein aur hum” and “Bin tere kya hai jeena?” How does it feel? Especially when the original artists of these songs appreciated your efforts?

Ironically all these tracks were last moment tracks in a sense that we never really planned them it was more like I was leaving the studio and I got this thought in my hand to record it and next day we did. “Tujhe kitna chahein aur hum?” was recorded freestyle in one go it wasn’t properly recorded it was more of a live version. I shared it sent it to Jubin Nautiyal and in a few hours I got a like back from him so that was pretty big and I started getting a lot of listeners from across the border. Same story with “Bin tere kya hai jeena?” A song very close to me, sang it last moment. Shared it on twitter and the next moment Jawad Ahmed retweets it. Gladly all my covers have been really positively received by the audience.

Apart from showbiz. What else do you like doing?

I love business. A lot of people don’t know this but this is also one of the top three things I love doing. I already have a few ventures and different sorts of work going on the entire year. Apart from this, I love traveling. I’m always on the road, shopping, gym sometimes if I manage to make it on time. I’m a huge car enthusiast! I change my cars faster than I change my clothes. I generally like to enjoy life along with my work. Keeping a balance.

Do you’ve any thoughts about nepotism in our industry?

Yes! I’ve really no issue in this regard. Nepotism is literally everywhere you see everywhere in the world. I mean if you have got the connections why not use it and play smart? Nepotism does not help you be a star it just helps you get work. Which happens in every sector not just showbiz. People really have an issue if they see someone succeeding these days or if someone got some connections and they use it. People make you a star, nepotism doesn’t. Focusing on your work, building your network is really important and a practical strategy.